Of Tailors

When I'm buying clothes in Pakistan, I'm mostly buying fabric and taking it to a tailor to be sewn into an outfit. Shalwar Kameez is a three-piece outfit consisting of pants, shirt and a scarf. For those, you go shopping at places that sell fabric in matching three piece sets. You pick out a pattern that you like and take the fabric to a tailor. There you choose the style and cut that you like, and the tailor makes the outfit to your specifications. It's not like in America where tailors are hard to find and expensive. Tailors are everywhere in Pakistan, on every corner and at all prices. 

A shopkeeper standing in front of rows and rows of fabric, many in three-piece sets for making a shalwar kameez outfit.

Finding a good tailor can be difficult, though. Tailoring seems to be a mostly male. family profession, so a son might take over his father's tailoring business. My mother-in-law uses the tailor down the block from her house, and the first outfits I got as gifts where sewn him him. I even used him for the first clothes I bought for myself when I went to Pakistan. I think he's not a very good tailor at all. Things I had sewn my him were almost always ill-fitting. The armholes on one of my shirts were even two different sizes once. 

The next time I bought clothes in Pakistan I asked one of M's fashionable cousins to hook me up with her tailor. Last December when we traveled to Pakistan, I bought a big heap of clothes and took them to the new tailor and he did a pretty good job. Some stuff was still botched though.

I think that one of the reasons tailors can botch the tailoring is because men in Pakistan aren't always comfortable touching women. Especially unrelated women. Especially unrelated American women. Who are wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Suffice it to say that my first tailor wouldn't take my measurements at all, ever. He would only accept my measurements written down on a paper. No wonder nothing ever fit right. The second tailor took my measurements himself, but only once and he still tried to keep his distance, ifyouknowwhatImean.

This is the tailor. It's just a small shop. It's just a very small storefront, and M and his cousin are inside talking with the tailor. There's a counter that the tailor stands behind when customers are in his shop, and some completed outfits hanging up on the back wall. The interesting thing is that the store is very small, and the tailors are actually working in a loft above the rest of the store. 

This is the inside of the (2nd, better) tailor. The main tailor and store owner is standing behind the counter. Some of the completed outfits are on the shelves behind him, rolled up and waiting for their owners to come pick them up. The book that M's fashionable cousin is leaning on holds different pictures of the tailor's best pieces and designs. This includes all kinds of style and cut options that you can choose from. People can get really creative with a neckline design or cutouts on the sleeves of pants, so the tailor can show you one of these books to give you some inspiration. Notice above M's cousins head is the loft where the tailor sits and sews the clothes. The entire store where 3-4 tailors work is no bigger than 10 square feet.

Here's a shot of the loft. The tailor can only just sit up there, he's so close to the roof! They've got their sewing machines up there and they sit up there for hours each day. On Eid, the holiday when everyone wants to have new clothes made for the big day, they can spend almost all day in there working for weeks beforehand.

Here's the other shot of the loft, with the other tailors. I don't think I could spend all day in that tiny loft cramped up with three other guys. What a job!

You need tailors for more than just shalwar kameez, too. A sari,  a several-meters long piece of unstiched fabric that you wind up and wrap around yourself -  would presumably not need any tailoring. But actually you wear it with a small tight blouse underneath that must be sewn, and also a thin petticoat underneath. The petticoat helps the skirt part of the sari flow without sticking to your legs, and also helps with the thinner saris which can be a little transparent. Also, because a sari is so difficult to wrap up and get the folds just right, you can even get it sewn up already folded & pleated, taking the skill right out of it! (Guess which kind of saris The Gori Wife has made - HA!)